Carbon Pulse

California compliance offset issuance slowed over the past two weeks to once again trail year-ago levels, state data published Wednesday showed, while credits providing direct environmental benefits to the state (DEBs) reached an all-time high premium to untagged units heading into next week’s interim cap-and-trade true-up deadline.

Nations gathered at the COP28 UN climate summit next month should include carbon credits from forestry-based activities in the final rules for the Article 6.4 successor mechanism to the Kyoto Protocol, a Brazilian agriculture lobby group said in recommendations to the federal government Wednesday.

A Paris-based startup has raised $2.6 million to expand its monitoring, verification, and brokering of carbon credits generated from emissions reductions in rice throughout markets in Asia, Africa, and South America.

Nations must agree aggressive near-term targets to increase renewable energy worldwide as well as to phase out fossil fuels to ensure the Paris Agreement's climate goals are kept within reach, EU officials said on Wednesday in assessing ambitions for year-end COP28 UN climate talks in Dubai.

A UAE company has signed a collaboration deal with the Kenyan government for the development of REDD+ projects across millions of hectares in the African nation, according to a press release Wednesday. 

The EU’s role in developing robust methodologies for carbon removals as a way to scale up the market and build trust in the nascent industry was highlighted by international players at a forum in Brussels on Wednesday that focused on designing direct air capture (DAC) and bioenergy with carbon capture (BECCS) methodologies.

Ahead of a UN-affiliated meeting next week on deep-sea mining, an NGO-led campaign has called for a blanket moratorium on the activity and the closure of legal loopholes that permit deep-water extraction work.

Financial instruments supporting mangroves and forestry are under consideration by members of the African Natural Capital Allliance (ANCA), an executive at the organisation has said.

Thousands more companies have retired carbon credits this year than last, data shows, even as negative media coverage has seen buyers back away from the market and prices crash.

A European manufacturing company and conservation NGO are jointly developing carbon projects where the credits will be donated as a ‘contribution’ towards the host nation’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) goal set under the Paris Agreement, in what is emerging as a model for the voluntary carbon market.

China has provided additional clarity to its voluntary market by setting a firm time limit on the use of previously issued domestic carbon credits, as the country is in the process of revitalising its offset programme.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator (CER) has been working behind the scenes to set up a national carbon exchange in the country that it says it will launch early next year, but it has remained coy about any of the details surrounding its development.

Billions are being invested in nature tech startups that are benefitting from increased emphasis on corporate impact reporting, with MRV and biodiversity credit startups among the largest growing categories.

European carbon prices again reversed early gains on Wednesday and fell to a three-week low as positioning data showed that speculative investors had increased their bearish bets last week, while energy markets were little changed as the participants waited for further developments in Gaza to provide signals on potential energy supply risk from the region.

A partnership that aims to plant 120,000 mangrove trees in Vietnam during its first year with OECM potential has been announced by Korean carmaker Hyundai and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Specialised members of the European Parliament voted on Wednesday to widen an obligation on oil firms to pay for the bloc's CCS infrastructure via the bloc's Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA), the EU proposal setting 2030 targets to produce 'strategically important' clean technologies domestically.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has appointed an expert academic to commence a review of gateway checks for human-induced regeneration (HIR) Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) projects.

Concrete international legal frameworks and agreements should be used by sitting governments to stymie attempts by belligerent political parties to tear down effective climate policies and carbon pricing, panellists told a conference Tuesday.

A Tokyo-based J-Credit intermediary in Japan’s fledgling carbon market has signed a supply agreement with two local banks looking to offset their emissions and offer carbon market access to their customers.

South Korea is considering introducing regulatory updates to help domestic companies better tackle the trade impact of carbon border taxes, though CO2 permits may continue to be handed out for free in the near term, experts told a conference on Wednesday.